Cascaded connection matrices in a distributed cross-connection system

ABSTRACT

A method and system for interconnecting multiple distributed components in a communication network is provided. The design includes a multiple order cross connection fabric employed to interconnect multiple orders of data with at least one distributed component in the communication network. The design may further include at least one order of path termination and adaptation connection, where the at least one order of path termination and adaptation connection providing an interface between the multiple order cross connection fabric and a data management system. The design may be implemented in a SONET/SDH environment.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a divisional reissue application of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/273,182, file Oct. 13, 2011, which is areissue of U.S. Pat. No. 7,602,777, granted from U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/016,197, filed Dec. 17, 2004, where the U.S. Pat. No.7,602,777 has more than one reissue application, including the presentapplication filed as a divisional application of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/273,182, file Oct. 13, 2011.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to the field of high-speed datatransfer, and more specifically to managing cross connect matriceswithin a data transfer architecture.

2. Description of the Related Art

Current high-speed high bandwidth data communication systems employ avariety of components to facilitate the receipt and transmission of datapackets. Among the components used are network nodes, which may includefunctional components such as framers and cross-connects betweencomponents that allow data transport over at least one channel. A frameris a device that handles the overhead processing and statistics for theSONET/SDH connection and provides a method of distinguishing digitalchannels multiplexed together. The framer designates or marks channelswithin a bit stream, providing the basic time slot structure,management, and fault isolation for the network node. The cross connectallows portions of a digital bit stream to be rerouted or connected todifferent bit streams. Cross connects enable data traffic to be movedfrom one SONET ring to the next ring in its path to the destinationnode.

Typically, these high-speed high bandwidth data communication systemsare realized by interconnecting a large number of network nodes toreceive and transmit ever-increasing amounts of data. Wheninterconnecting such nodes using cross connects, the traffic may begroomed, protection switching applied, and bridging and routing of dataemployed. Grooming is the ability to break up incoming data frames intolower bandwidth components, followed by switching the lower bandwidthcomponents between incoming frames to form output frames. Protectionswitching is the ability to switch between components when a failure isencountered, such as a component failure. Bridging differs from routingin that bridging creates a connection between components, while routingdirects data from one component to another where a bridge may or may notbe present.

Traffic for transport networks can be carried in high-order (HO) orlow-order (LO) containers, two standards specified in the SONET/SDHarchitecture. Network nodes may employ connection matrices to address HOand LO traffic separated by the LO pointer and overhead processors. Theconnection matrix is a matrix establishing all connections between allpoints in the relevant portion or entirety of the network.

In a distributed implementation where each connection matrix isimplemented using several devices, the large amount of bandwidth at eachlevel of the cascaded matrix mandates the use of multiple interconnects.Use of cascaded matrices in a distributed system requires N sets ofinterconnects, where N is the number of cascaded connection matrices.Cascaded matrices or cascaded connection matrices are a series ofportions of a connection matrix, such as columns, that establish theconnections between one component and another component in the network.

The problem encountered using connection matrices is that ofdistribution. Connection matrices and cascaded connection matrices maybe distributed throughout the network, and may be updated in certaincomponents while not updated in others. This wide distribution ofconnection matrices causes routing congestion on the device, can requireincreased component size, thus taking up more space or real estate onthe board, and can ultimately require more power to support the requiredfunctionality of the network.

A design that provides for and uses an efficiently ordered set ofconnection matrices and/or cascaded connection matrices may provideincreased throughput and other advantageous qualities over previouslyknown designs, including designs employing the SONET/SDH architecture.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by wayof limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a conceptual illustration of a SONET/SDH communicationsswitching system employing the design provided herein;

FIG. 2 shows a suitable system embodiment in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates cascaded connection matrices;

FIG. 4 shows a unified cascaded connection matrix in accordance with thepresent design;

FIG. 5 is a generically re-configurable restoration connection matrixfor a transport system;

FIG. 6 illustrates a general flowchart of health code assessment andresponsive operation;

FIG. 7 shows a generic reconfigurable health encoder for high-order andlow-order SONET/SDH type cross-connect system;

FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C illustrate an example list of possible health codesfor high-order conditions;

FIGS. 9A and 9B illustrate an example list of possible health codes forlow-order conditions;

FIG. 10 illustrates the general traffic flow and forwarding mechanismconfiguration within a single device;

FIG. 11 shows G1 remote status forwarding in cascaded connectionmatrices; and

FIG. 12 is a unified HO/LO cross connect fabric interfacing withinterconnected elements and devices using a single point of connection.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thedesign, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawingsand tables. While the design will be described in conjunction with thepreferred embodiments, it will be understood that they are not intendedto limit the design to those embodiments. On the contrary, the design isintended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents, whichmay be included within the spirit and scope of the design as defined bythe appended claims.

The present design may provide for a unified HO/LO cross connect fabricand individual HO and LO paths connecting to the unified HO/LO crossconnect fabric. The design may establish a single point ofinterconnection for both low order and high order connections.

Data transmission over fiber optics networks may conform to the SONETand/or SDH standards. SONET and SDH are a set of related standards forsynchronous data transmission over fiber optic networks. SONET is shortfor Synchronous Optical NETwork and SDH is an acronym for SynchronousDigital Hierarchy. SONET is the United States version of the standardpublished by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). SDH isthe international version of the standard published by the InternationalTelecommunications Union (ITU). As used herein, the SONET/SDH conceptsare more fully detailed in various ANSI and ITU standards, including butnot limited to the discussion of “health”, Bellcore GR-253, ANSI T1.105,ITU G.707, G.751, G.783, and G.804.

System Design

A typical SONET/SDH switching system 100 is shown in FIG. 1. In theSONET/SDH switching system 100, a transmitter 110 is connected through acommunication pathway 115 to a switching network 120. Switching network120 is connected through a communication pathway 125 to a destination130. The transmitter 110 sends data as a series of payloads/frames tothe destination 130 through the switching network 120. In the switchingnetwork 120, packets typically pass through a series of hardware and/orsoftware components, such as servers. As each payload arrives at ahardware and/or software component, the component may store the payloadbriefly before transmitting the payload to the next component. Thepayloads proceed individually through the network until they arrive atthe destination 130. The destination 130 may contain one or moreprocessing chips 135 and/or one or more memory chips 140.

FIG. 2 is a drawing of a typical SONET/SDH Add-Drop Multiplex (ADM) 150.The ADM 150 manages SONET/SDH network topologies, the most typicaltopology being a ring. In a ring topology, the ADM 150 connects to thering using two linecards: a first (ring) linecard 151 connected to theWest Interface and a second (ADD/DROP) linecard 152 connected to theEast Interface. Other linecards can be used as traffic sources and sinks(not shown), where a source may be involved in an ADD operation, and asink may be involved in a DROP operation. An ADD operation insertstraffic from the source onto the ring, and a DROP operation removestraffic off the ring to the sink.

Each ring linecard, such as first linecard 151, may include a framer155, pointer processor 156, and a timeslot interchange (TSI) 157. Theframer 155 can be used to locate the beginning of a SONET/SDH frame. Thepointer processor 156 may locate the payload and align the payload forthe TSI and fabric 160. The TSI 157 may move or groom timeslots withinan SONET/SDH frame to provide orderly traffic to the fabric card 161.

Different types of ADD/DROP linecards exist. Some ADD/DROP linecards mayhandle Ethernet packets, Plesiosynchronous digital hierarchy (PDH)traffic (T1, T3, E1, E3, etc), and/or transit traffic from otherSONET/SDH rings. Other types of ADD/DROP linecards may include transitADD/DROP linecards, similar to the RING linecards. A PDH linecard maycontain a T1/E1 framer that searches for the beginning of T1/E1 frame, aperformance monitoring function for tracking the status of the incomingframe, and a mapper to insert the PDH traffic into a SONET/SDH frame,thus making the PDH traffic understandable to the fabric 160. PDHADD/DROP linecard 175 includes PDH framer 176, PDH Monitor 177, andmapper 178.

Fabric management card 161 contains management host controller 162 andhigh order cross connect or TDM fabric 163, and may interface withsubtended fabric 164 containing low-order cross-connect 165. Thesubtended fabric 164 may fit in one or more line card slots. Fabricbackplane 171 may be TFI-5 or proprietary, for example. Control plane172 may be PCI compatible or a simple microcontroller interfacedepending on the application. Other configurations may be employed forthe backplane and control plane elements.

The transmission path of the ADM 150 comprises a time divisionmultiplexing (TDM) fabric or cross-connect 160 that moves traffic amongall the linecards attached to the fabric 160. A high-order cross-connector fabric moves high-order SONET/SDH containers between linecards andamongst time-slots within a SONET/SDH framer. A full function ADM 150can manipulate low-order as well as high-order SONET/SDH containers. Thelow-order manipulation can be performed in a subtended low-ordercross-connect. Use of multiple fabrics may create issues that could beresolved by providing a single, unified fabric as is done in the currentdesign.

Unified Cross Connection Matrix Design

From FIG. 3, HO cross connect matrix 301 is connected to LO crossconnect matrix 302 by a high order path termination and adaptationconnections. Triangles such as that shown as element 303 representtermination points, which terminate the overhead and the containertransmitted no longer exists. The trapezoidal elements, such as element304, are adaptation elements that adapt and pass the payload portion ofthe message. Adaptation comprises pointer determination and/or pointergeneration in this context. The combination element, such as element305, represents both the termination and the adaptation of the messagereceived.

From FIG. 3, data may flow from LO cross connect matrix 302 to HO crossconnect matrix 301 through adaptation element 304 and terminationelement 303. Data may alternately flow from HO cross connect matrix 301to LO cross connect matrix 302 through termination element 306 andadaptation element 307. Both of these paths represent the high orderpath termination and adaptation functionality.

As illustrated, the LO cross connect matrix 302 interconnects with alldistributed elements of the specific connection matrix interfacing withthe LO cross connection matrix 302. As may be appreciated, such a designmay be used within a multiple element arrangement, such as whereredundant components are available. The interconnection between the LOcross connection matrix 302 and all distributed elements provides theinformation to all distributed and/or redundant interconnected networkelements. Likewise, the HO cross connect matrix 301 provides aninterconnection with all distributed elements of the connection matrix,and thus can provide HO data to other connected and/or redundantcomponents.

The LO cross connect matrix interfaces with adaptation element 306 usingarrangement 308, which includes path 308a, path 308b, terminationelement 308c, and path 308d. Path 308b, termination element 308c, andpath 308d provide for low order path non-intrusive monitoring, enablingmonitoring of the content of the low order path and the data providedfrom HO cross connect matrix 301 to LO cross connect matrix 302. Suchmonitoring enables evaluating the data flowing to the LO cross connectmatrix 302, and if acceptable, forwarding the data to the LO crossconnect matrix 302. If the data is all LO and no monitoring is needed,path 308a passes the data to the LO cross connect matrix 302.

Features 305 and 309 represent combination termination and adaptationelements that interface the Management System (MS) with the HO crossconnect matrix 301, and terminate the packets and adapt the packetsreceived into HO components. The two paths represent two differentincoming streams from the MS. Element 310 is a termination component ina high order path non-intrusive monitor, while element 311 is analternate termination component for the high order path. Each of the twopaths thus contains a high order path non-intrusive monitor, and eachoperates to detect a defective or bad message received. If such adefective message is located, operation switches to the other data pathfrom the MS to the HO cross connect matrix 301. Monitoring may bebypassed if undesired or unnecessary, or in the event pointers or thehigh order payload are unavailable, using paths 312 or 313.

By way of definition, in the scenario presented, a distributed crossconnect arrangement indicates multiple components are interconnected toform a relatively large capacity non-blocking cross connect. For anetwork comprising four devices, where each device has a non-blockingcross connect bidirectional capacity of 20 Gbps, the entire networkbecomes a single non-blocking cross connect with 80 Gbps bidirectionalcapacity.

Non-blocking in this context means that any timeslot can be crossconnected to any one or other timeslot without being blocked byconnections of another timeslot to yet other timeslots. Timeslot A canbe cross connected to timeslot B without being blocked by timeslot Cbeing connected to timeslot D. Bidirectional capacity is a termindicating that capacity is summed, such that 10 Gbps counts for bothoutput and input capacity. 80 Gbps means 80 Gbps of input and 80 Gbps ofoutput. Interconnecting elements to form an equivalent but largercapacity element is termed “stacking.”

Unifying the cascaded cross connect tends to minimize the number ofphysical interconnections and bandwidth required to stack crossconnection elements. In the case of separate high order and low ordercross connections, elements generally may require, in a SONETimplementation for example, 80 Gbps of bidirectional bandwidth for eachof the low order and high order cross connects for a total of 160 Gbpsbidirectional. In the unified case, transmission and reception onlyrequires 80 Gbps bidirectional.

With these definitions in mind, issues with the design of FIG. 3 mayinclude dealing with a significant number of I/O connections, andexcessive power consumption.

The present design comprises a unified HO/LO cross connect fabric 401 asshown in FIG. 4, also referred to as a multiple order cross connectfabric. The unified cross connect fabric connects all distributedelements and specifically both the high order and low order aspects ofeach in a single fabric rather than two separate fabrics. Such a designallows for a single matrix to perform the interconnect functions of thecross connect fabric. Fabrication of a unified cross connect fabriccomprises simply combining all performance of the HO and LO crossconnect fabrics 301 and 302 from FIG. 3 into a single unified crossconnect fabric, addressing both high order and low order functionality.

From FIG. 4, two paths are available to address unified HO/LO crossconnect fabric 401, namely an upper path and a lower path. The upperpath includes combined element 402, termination element 403, adaptationelement 404, as well as adaptation element 405, termination element 406,and low order path non-intrusive monitor 407. As with the previousdesign of FIG. 3, the low order path non-intrusive monitor monitors thelow order path for and may remove unacceptable data. This low order pathnon-intrusive monitor 407 may be bypassed. The lower path offers similarcomponents, namely combined element 412, termination element 413,adaptation element 414, as well as adaptation element 415, terminationelement 416, and low order path non-intrusive monitor 417. As contrastedwith the design of FIG. 3, a single interconnection is provided with asingle fabric to and from external distributed elements, and rather thanprocessing a high order matrix and its functionality in addition to alow order matrix and its associated functionality, a single fabric isoperated. The design of FIG. 4 provides for a cascaded connection matrixusing interconnected elements and devices using a single point ofconnection. The single point of connection enables centralized controlof all protection schemes at all protection levels. Centralization canbe employed using a single controller, where the FIG. 3 design requireda plurality of controllers. All statuses from all layers may beavailable using the design of FIG. 4.

Separate components and schemes may be employed to effectuate the designof FIG. 4. Protection schemes may exist at different levels, andcascaded protection schemes may be accomplished by, for example, usingan array of connection maps or a generically reconfigurable restorationconnection matrix as described below. Remote status forwarding in thedesign of FIG. 4 may be realized using the remote status designforwarding described below. Status may be communicated from all cascadedlayers to the location of the unified matrix using the channel healthencoder described below.

Protection Schemes/Health Assessment and Repair

Cascaded protection schemes may be implemented in different ways.Generally, one design for implementing a cascaded protection scheme usesan array of connection maps where the working channel connection mapsand the protection channel connection maps are stored. If each level ofthe cascaded matrix requires M of these maps, a unified N level cascadedsystem may employ M^(N) connection maps. Alternately, the design mayemploy a micro engine enabled controller to reprogram a singleconnection map driven by a cascaded system of maps employing M×N maps,generally resulting in the same number as a cascaded arrangement ofconnection maps.

Network elements in a high speed communication environment, such asSONET/SDH, generate and report a plurality of health codes including butnot limited to statuses, alarms, and defects. Each health code may beassigned a severity level by the reporting network element. Therepairing element may filter these detected health codes and associatedseverity assignments to prevent erroneous health codes from causingundesired protection switches. In such a situation, reporting anunfiltered health code may result in the network element considering anetwork element defective when it is not, and activating a protectionswitch to address the perceived defect issue.

Health codes enable repairing network elements to identify a healthiestchannel by comparing health code values received for all channels withinthe fabric. The challenge faced occurs when the network elementresponsible for repairing a failure within a transport channel mustrapidly and accurately interpret the transport channel health andinitiate appropriate corrective action to restore a failing connection.

The present system may employ a technique whereby the health of aconnection channel generated and reported by a network element isdetected and optionally filtered, communicated to the repairing element,a restoration determined based on the connection channel health values,and repair is realized by re-provisioning the cross connect. This designmay provide for detecting transport channel health codes (e.g. statuses,alarms and defects) and filtering these codes to extract one or more ofthe highest severity health status originating from detecting networkelements representing a connection fault, communicating the detectedstatus to a network element responsible for repairing the connection,applying a filter, such as a persistent filter, at the repairing networkelement to prevent erroneous health codes from causing undesiredprotection switches to occur, employing a processing device such as amicro engine inside a repairing element, to determine how best to repairthe failed connection within the available network fabric, andre-provisioning the cross connect to affect a relatively rapid repairfor the failed connection.

The present design will be illustrated below in an exemplary SONET/SDHtransport data flow system utilizing separate elements for detectionfunctions and restore functions. The present design is applicable to anynetwork architecture where the detecting functions are located in aseparate device from the function employed to restore connections.

A generically re-configurable restoration connection matrix for atransport system 500 is shown in FIG. 5. The transport system 500 mayconform to SONET/SDH standards. FIG. 5 illustrates an example ofSONET/SDH implementation where health codes originating from detectingnetwork elements (not shown) and other system statuses, including butnot limited to pointer and overhead processors, are communicated in-bandusing available transport overhead bytes to convey network health to adown stream repairing element. Pointer processing accommodates possiblemovement of the non-synchronous payloads within SONET/SDH containers.Path overhead processing entails processing all defined transportoverhead and path overhead bytes, including framing, scrambling andde-scrambling, alarm signal insertion and detection, and remote failureinsertion and detection. In-band signaling entails making three bytesavailable in the section layer to form a 192 kbs message channel,providing a message-based channel for transmission of alarms,maintenance, control, and administration between section-terminatingnetwork equipment.

The repairing element receives the health codes and processes the healthcodes using a user programmable processor or micro engine. Theprocessing determines the healthiest channel from among the availabletransport channels by directly comparing the health code values receivedfor multiple transport channels. The repairing element then determineshow to repair the failed connection depending on the failure encounteredand may re-provision the connection using a separate network elementwithin the system.

Repair may require, among other options, removing a transport channelfrom consideration in a worst case, or possibly alerting a physicalrepair person or entity, or requesting application of power to a powereddown component. Repair options depend on circumstance and availablerepair means, and are broadly known within the art. For example, if acomponent is not transmitting data and it is simply turned off, repairmay comprise either sending an alert to an appropriate entity requestingpowering up the component, or providing a signal to a control componentto provide power to the component, or simply bypassing the component orchannel altogether. In the present discussion, repair will be generallyreferenced, but such repair is to be understood to be circumstance,available repair means, and architect dependent as known to thoseskilled in the art.

In the generically reconfigurable restoration connection matrix for atransport system 500, one or more detecting network elements, one ormore high order data path processors, and one or more low order datapath processors may generate and send encodings of detected statuses,alarms, and defects. These encodings represent the quality of eachobserved transport channel and communicate the quality via interoperablehealth codes, in one embodiment using in-band signaling techniques, at510. The present design is not limited to using an in-band signalingcommunication technique for conveying network health, but instead mayencompass any type of signaling.

Health codes are received and stored by a channel health storage unit515, located adjacent to the cross connect in FIG. 5, and made availableto the network element for analysis. Each health code may be received atpoint 510 as a formatted three bit priority code, wherein the highestencoded priority may represent the worst defects or alarms, and thelowest priority may be for no defects or alarms. In this arrangement,the lowest priority health code represents the healthiest transportchannel.

The processor or micro engine 525 may analyze the health of eachincoming channel. The micro engine 525 may control mapping of thefabric, detect defects at the pointer processors, and switch at thecross connects. Switching entails applying a switch and changing a statefor purposes of repair. Micro engine 525 may analyze a protocol carriedin any of the transport overhead bytes, and such functionality may inone embodiment be provided by an operator or user. The micro enginerestoration decision-making process may be provided via externallyaddressable program space 530 to implement any standard or proprietarytransport restoration scheme. In other words, the design is fashioned toreceive a health code in a prearranged format and assess health based onthe data received in the prearranged format.

The micro engine 525 may extract the encoded control messages from thechannel health store 515 at the cross connect matrix. The micro engine525 may further extract resident state memory and timer information. Themicro engine 525 may apply a persistent filtering scheme to preventerroneous health codes from causing undesired protection switches tooccur. One such filter may count the number of consecutive frames havingthe same health code. This count of the number of consecutive frames canvary depending on desired performance. Once this count of consecutiveframes having the same health code is reached, the micro engine 525 mayaccept the health code for processing. At this point, the micro engine525 may forward the filtered health code to a lookup table. Health codesare stored and may subsequently be accessed by the micro engine 525.

The micro engine 525 may compare extracted health codes, make protectionswitch decisions, and provide relatively fast matrix reconfigurationcapabilities. The micro engine 525 can then select appropriateprotection maps at the cross connect. The micro engine 525 may employtwo types of connection maps, namely a working map and a protection map.An output connection map can be a table of coordinates used to identifythose inputs connected to specific available outputs. A working maptypically contains connection coordinates for the working connectionsfor each connectable container, such as a SONET/SDH container.Protection maps are typically employed in the presence of protectionswitching, where protection switching allows data on a failed componentto be moved to an alternate component. Several protection maps may beused to derive connection coordinates for the protection connections.These coordinates uniquely identify each Tributary Unit (TU) orAdministrative Unit (AU) within a protection switching scheme.Coordinates can be high order or low order, where high order coordinatesidentify to the AU level and low order to the TU level. Maps may beprovisioned via the micro engine interface (not shown).

A working map is employed whether or not protection switching isconfigured. When the network device is configured for protectionswitching, the network device may store the working connectioncoordinates. When protection switching is not configured, the networkdevice may store the Time-Slot Interchange (TSI) connection coordinates.A single working map may apply to both the high-order and low-ordercross-connection matrices.

High order protection maps and low order protection maps are available.High-order protection maps provide for protection switching of thehigh-order coordinates, while low-order protection maps are used toswitch low-order coordinates. Protection maps provide coordinates forinputs containing protection traffic. The present system may derive thesource coordinate for protection based on a combination of high orderand low order protection maps. Combining the upper portion of thecoordinate from one high-order protection map and the lower portion ofthe coordinate from one low-order protection map provides a final sourcecoordinate. For any given destination coordinate, any of the high-ordermaps and any of the low-order maps can be used to derive final sourcecoordinates for that destination. The micro engine 525 may determine thecombination of maps used to determine the final source coordinate byselecting a coordinate within the working map or a coordinate derivedfrom the high-order and low-order protection maps. In other words, themicro engine 525 may have protection maps and working maps at itsdisposal, and may use these maps to determine a way to reach a desiredsource coordinate or set of coordinates.

Micro engine 525 may select one of several protection connection maps touse for a given destination connection. This selection criteria may bedictated by incoming health codes. For a given configuration, the microengine 225 may compare health codes associated with input connectionsdestined for a given output connection. Of these inputs, the microengine 525 may select the input connection having the best quality orlowest health code.

Before application of the protection switch, the input connection in theforegoing example may be qualified or verified using a variety of postprocessing filters. Post processing filters are specified in SONET/SDHstandards. The following post filters may be implemented using the microengine 525 via the microcontroller interface (not shown):

1. 1+1 Revertive or Non-Revertive Modes.

2. A Hysteresis Switching Filter. Such a filter may be applied when thepriority difference between the health codes of the protection andworking traffic exceeds a predetermined amount.

3. Comparison of health codes from multiple protection traffic sources,including comparison of multiple protection switching layers.

4. Post-Hold Timers. Post-hold timers may reduce switching frequency,especially during transient conditions. Such timers can disableswitching for a certain amount of time after the last protection switch.

5. Manual User Command via software.

The micro engine 525 may communicate the re-provisioning of theconnection maps to the cross connect matrix 535 responsible forrestoring the failed connection.

Although the channel health store 515, micro engine 525, and externallyaddressable program space 530 are shown as three separate elements,these components may be parts of the same application or piece ofsoftware, or may be embedded firmware or specialized hardware such as anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

FIG. 6 illustrates a general flowchart of health code assessment andresponsive operation. From FIG. 6, the design detects health codescommunicated from network elements at point 601, analyzes detectedhealth codes to measure and determine transport channel health at point602, determines a reprovisioning of connection maps within a repairingelement in the high speed communication network at point 603, andcommunicates re-provisioned connection maps to the repairing element atpoint 604.

The communication network architecture may restore a network nodeconnection fault, such as loss of signal, by switching to a redundantconnection, called “protection switching.” A detecting function ordetecting hardware, such as a framer, may generate observed transportchannel health information and communicate this information to aconnection restoring function, such as a cross-connect, wherein thehealth detection function and the function of restoring the connectionreside in separate network elements.

External SONET/SDH network elements, representing a combination ofproprietary and standards-based manufacturer's equipment, may generateand report multiple health signals including but not limited to status,alarms, and defects of individual elements in the network. Each healthsignal may be assigned a severity level by the reporting externalnetwork element. However, these reported health signals and theirassociated severity assignment may not be uniform or consistent acrossall network elements. The present design addresses network elements thatemploy proprietary or other standards to communicate the health of atransport channel in a manner or format that does not comply with otherelements in the system. Non-compliant communication results in detectedhealth information that cannot be used by other elements in determiningthe quality of a transport channel. Furthermore, elements identifyingthe healthiest channel among a plurality of available transport channelsmay be unable to consider this detected health information in thecomparison process. Thus, in previous systems, performance or serviceaffecting failures, although reported, may not be restored by therepairing element without either manual intervention or automation byuse of an external operational support system, such as NetworkManagement System/Element Management System. Both of these methods tendto be relatively slow to respond, and may be inadequate for managingtransport channel restoration functions. Additionally, the time requiredto process a large variety and volume of generated health signals,including those reporting the same problem can impede the fast switchingtimes objectives (e.g. less-than 50-millisecond protection switching)defined in SONET/SDH standards relating to various automated protectionschemes, such as the SONET/SDH 1+1 and 1:N line protection.

The present design collects the health of a connection channel, encodesthe health, and communicates the health to points in the network forsubsequent processing. As used herein, the term “health signal”generally represents a general health of a device in a device specificmeasurement format. For example, if a data channel is broken and therange of health for the data channel is 1 (healthy) to 5 (broken), thevalue of 5 is the health metric. The term “health metric” generallyrepresents a converted and possibly standardized health signal, wherethe health metric may be converted to a standard value usable bydownstream components. In the previous example, health signal values maybe standardized to a 0 (healthy) to 4 (complete failure) scale andtransmitted in a two bit value. In this arrangement, the previousexample may require converting the health signal from the 0 to 5 scaleinto the health metric 0 to 4 scale, and may convert the 5 to a 4, andtransmit a “11” binary value as a health metric. The term “health code”represents the code chosen from the health signals availablerepresenting at least one and possibly multiple transport channels.Continuing the previous example, a health metric of 0 for a piece ofsoftware in transport channel X and a health metric of 0 for aconnection hardware element in transport channel X used together intransport channel X with a hardware device having a health metric of 1may result in a health code of 1 or possibly 0 depending on designchoice. As noted below, the health code may represent the worst of allavailable health metrics or a weighted average or other combination ofall health metrics for the transport channel.

The design presented may extract transport channel health signalsoriginating and communicated from external network elements, possiblyusing proprietary or encodings defined by other standards. The designmay convert these external health signals into internal representations,or at least one health metric. The present design may also monitor datapath processors, such as SONET/SDH high-order and low-order data pathprocessors, to collect status, alarms, and defects sufficient to deriveadditional statuses for measuring the transport channels health and foruse in computing a health metric for usable transport channels. Thedesign can further translate the collected health metrics into a commonset of health codes that may be encoded such that the health codesgenerated by external network elements can be compared to determine ahealth code reporting a relative healthier channel than other availablechannels. The design may additionally communicate to other downstreamelements within the system using the healthier channel and/orcommunicating the healthier channel to the downstream elements.

The present design is illustrated in an exemplary SONET/SDH transportdata flow system utilizing separate elements for detection functions andrestore functions. However, the present design may apply to any networkarchitecture where the detecting functions are located in a deviceseparate from the function used to restore connections.

A generic reconfigurable health encoder for high-order and low-orderSONET/SDH cross-connect system 700 is shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 7illustrates a two layer cascaded implementation communicating healthcodes to a downstream cross-connect. The health code is located in aseparate functional element or another device within the system. A twolayer cascaded system is illustrated for simplicity, but not intended tolimit the present design in terms of the number of layers that may beprotection cascaded. Alternate implementations may include, for example,Bidirectional Line Switched Ring, High order-Unidirectional PathSwitched Ring, Low order-Unidirectional Path Switched Ring, VirtualTributary grooming, and so forth.

In the generic reconfigurable health encoder 700, multiple externalnetwork elements 710 represent a mix of proprietary and standards basedequipment. As used herein, the term “mix” describes a combination ofstandard and proprietary health signals generated by detecting elementsand communicated to repairing elements, where such standard andproprietary health signals generally are inoperable at receivingelements or nodes, or cannot be understood. One embodiment of the healthencoder 700 may be used in a high-order and low-order SONET/SDHcross-connect system. External network elements 710 generate and sendencoded detected status, alarm, and defect information represented byone or more external health signals to health code converter 715, calledan interpreter. These externally generated health signals may includeproprietary encodings and/or encodings defined by one or more standards.

The health code converter 715 may reside in a programmablemicroprocessor programmed within software accessible internal registers760 via a microcontroller interface (not shown) of the programmablemicroprocessor. A conversion process, converting the health codereceived to a standardized health code, may be realized within thehealth code converter 715. The conversion process may beuser-programmable, enabling external network element health signals tobe translated to an internal representation of a health metric. Thehealth code converter 715 may send the resultant converted healthmetrics to the high-order health encoder 725. In this manner ofconverting received health codes into converted health metrics, thepresent design can support and/or operate with equipment conforming tostandards or manufactured by different vendors and exhibiting differinghealth signals.

The high-order health encoder 725 may monitor the high-order fabrictransport channels to derive additional statuses for use in assessingeach channel's health. The high-order health encoder 725 may use thecollected and monitored statuses communicated from high-order data pathprocessors at 720 to compute a health metric for each transport channel.The health metric may indicate a most severe defect indicated by thestatuses based on prioritization of the statuses, and may furtherindicate other defects. Alternately, the health metric may indicate anaverage or weighted average or other mathematical representation of thehealth signals received. The high-order health encoder 725 may excludecertain statuses from use during the computation of a health metric.Status information collected from high-order data path processors at 720may be translated to an internal representation of a health metric andmay be prioritized and classified according to selected or userprogrammable configurations. A user programmable code may be associatedwith each class. As used herein, the term “class” represents a group ofmetrics or codes having similar characteristics. For example, a failurestatus, failure conditions or categories, and failure duration may allbe party of a failure class. The quantity of health conditions couldexceed that of available codes, so conditions need to be classified andmapped to the corresponding codes. Classes are generally flexible, asthey may be programmed by the user.

FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C show an example list 800, however not limited to orexhaustive, of possible health conditions 810 for high-order fabric thatmay be prioritized and classified to generate a user-programmable code820 and associated triggers 830 for those conditions. Health conditionsrepresent various detected external status, alarm, or defect healthsignals. The user programmable code reflects the translation of thesestatus, defects and alarms into a three bit message. A trigger 830represents the actual problem encounter and detected by the reportingelement. The first condition shown in FIG. 8A is a CSI byte, which is anexternal health signal. The code may be compacted, such as from eightbits to three bits using binary conversion, thereby using fewer bitsthan the collected information per channel. Compacted codes reduce theamount of data required to communicate and store the health statusacross all functional elements.

At this stage, the high-order health encoder 725 can convert thereceived health metrics, potentially in three bit compacted form, fromone or more health code converters 715 and the computed health metricsfrom one or more high-order data path processors at 720 into a commonset of health codes. The high-order health encoder 725 encodes healthmetrics such that the resultant health codes generated by externalnetwork elements may be compared to each other, and compared to thestatus, alarms, and defects monitored and collected from the transportchannel itself, thus enabling a determination of which code reports ahealthier channel.

The computation of health codes may involve a reduction in whichmultiple statuses of similar severity can be represented by one codevalue. The resulting code values require fewer bits to encode andtransmit. For example, for statuses relating to transmission channels,one set of codes may be “0” for failed and “1” for operational.Alternately, 0 may represent operational, 1 may represent partlydamaged, 2 may represent severely damaged, and 3 representsnon-operational. Another set of codes may provide for 0 to be fullyoperational, 1 being 10 percent degraded, 2 being 20 percent degraded,up to 10 being 100 percent degraded. The system can collect these healthsignals and may equate them in an acceptable manner, such as on a threepoint scale, where values received are normalized to the three pointscale and reported. Weighting may be employed or scaling and rounding orother reasonable numeric techniques. In this manner, each health signalmay be efficiently translated into a uniform format health code, wherethe format may be a single three bit priority code, wherein the highestencoded priority represents the worst defects/alarms, and the lowestpriority is for no defects or alarms.

The high-order health encoder 725 may determine the healthiest ofmultiple transport channels by directly comparing the health code valuescomputed and processed for each transport channel.

The resultant channel health may be communicated to other elements usingin-band signaling as shown in FIG. 7 at 740, but not limited to this onecommunication technique. In-band communication of the channel health maybe realized using the Data Communications Channel in the case of theSONET architecture. The system makes three bytes available in thesection layer to form a 192 kbs message channel, providing a messagebased channel for transmission of alarms, maintenance, control, andadministration between section terminating network equipment. Thehigh-order health encoder 725 only communicates the highest prioritycodes downstream to one or more functional elements or cross-connect at740. At point 740, the health code may be inserted into any unusedoverhead bytes of the transport overhead frame.

In the SONET/SDH environment, for example, transport overhead may becomposed of section overhead and line overhead. Line overhead isaccessed, generated and processed by line-terminating equipment and usedto support the following functions including multiplexing orconcatenating signals, performance monitoring, automatic protectionswitching, and line maintenance. Section overhead may be used forcommunication between adjacent network elements. Section overhead may beaccessed, generated, and processed by section-terminating equipment andused for performance monitoring, framing, automatic protectionswitching, line maintenance, and maintenance and provisioning.Additionally, the resultant channel health status may also becommunicated to the low-order health encoder 735.

Use of a common health code results in a magnitude indicator, where themagnitude indicator allows each network element to identify a healthiestchannel by comparing health code values received when more than onechannel is available within the fabric. In other words, a networkelement having at its disposal three transport channels may determine afirst health code for channel X, a second health code for channel Y, anda third health code for channel Z. The result may be a magnitudeindicator indicating the best health from among X, Y, and Z.

The low-order health encoder 735 may monitor the low-order fabrictransport channels to derive additional statuses for use in measuringthe channels health. The low-order health encoder 735 may use thecollected and monitored statuses, communicated from a variety oflow-order data path processors at 730, to compute a health metric foreach transport channel. The health metric indicates the most severedefect indicated by the collected statuses based on a programmableprioritization of the statuses and defects indicated. Additionally, thelow-order health encoder 735 may exclude certain statuses from useduring computation of a health metric. All status information collectedfrom low-order data path processors at 730 may be translated into aninternal representation of the health metric and may be prioritized andclassified according to different configurations. A user programmablecode may be associated with each class.

FIGS. 9A and 9B include possible health conditions 910 for the low-orderfabric that may be prioritized and classified to generate auser-programmable code 920 (i.e. message) and associated trigger 930 forthose conditions. The health conditions again represent various detectedexternal status, alarm, or defect health signals. The user programmablecode reflects the translation of these status, defects and alarms into athree bit message. The trigger represents the problem encountered anddetected by the reporting element. The first condition in FIG. 9A is aLO (low order) Software Fail #1, which is an external health signalrepresenting a failure of a low order software function. This externalhealth signal may be translated into a programmable three bit message,similar to the method used for the high-order encoder. These codes maybe compacted into fewer bits than the collected information per channel,reducing the amount of data required and enabling simpler implementationof downstream processing.

The low-order health encoder 735 may convert the received health metricsfrom one or more high-order health encoders 725 and the computed healthmetrics from one or more low-order data path processors at 730 into acommon set of health codes. The low-order health encoder 735 may encodethese health metrics such that the resultant health codes generated byexternal network elements may be compared to each other and compared tothe status, alarms, and defects monitored and collected from thetransport channel. The health metric conversion process for thelow-order aspect again computes health codes where multiple statuses ofsimilar severity may be represented by one code value. Each healthmetric may be translated into a health code, formatted as a three bitpriority code, wherein the highest encoded priority represents the worstdefects/alarms, and the lowest priority is for no defects or alarms. Thelow-order health encoder 735 may determine the healthiest of multipletransport channels by directly comparing the health code values receivedfor each transport channel.

The resultant channel health may be communicated to other elements usingin-band signaling as shown in FIG. 7 at 740 and may employ othercommunication techniques. Typically the highest priority of these codesare communicated downstream by the low-order health encoder 735 to oneor more functional elements, such as a cross-connect at 740 where theresultant health code may be inserted into any unused overhead bytes ofthe transport overhead frame.

The resultant health codes generated by the high-order and low-orderencoders, 725 and 735 respectively, may be communicated to other networkelements within the system. Health codes may be compared directly by anynetwork element to determine the healthiest of multiple transportchannels. In this aspect, a network element receiving health codes doesnot require knowledge of the individual statuses or prioritizations usedto compute health code values.

In a further aspect of the present design, high-order and low-orderencoders may be cascaded to handle multiple network layers, such asthree layers, employing multiple health codes.

Although the health code converter 715, high-order health encoder 725,and low-order health encoder 735 are shown in the Figures as threeseparate elements, these components may be parts of a single applicationor piece of software, or may be embedded firmware or specializedhardware such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

Remote Status Indicators

The present design may further broadcast remote status indicators toenable remote status forwarding within cascaded protection systems. Theremote status indicators may be broadcast to all remote or distributedsources from which data is redundancy transmitted.

A transport network node has multiple receive and transmit ports bywhich the transport network and access networks are connected. Thesenodes typically have large aggregate bandwidths, receiving andtransmitting significant quantities of data per unit of time, and usemultiple ports to transmit and receive this data. Nodes may beimplemented using multiple framer processors, and such a system isconsidered “distributed” from the node's point of view. The connectionbetween the receive and transmit ports and the remote system or devicemay require more than a single framer device. Use of such a multipleframer device to connect to a remote system is called an asymmetricconnection. The need for asymmetric connections may arise from thedesired implementation of the nodes and/or the type of protectionswitching employed, where protection switching may provide for switchingto an alternate component or resource in the event of a failure.

One aspect of an implementation of a remote status mechanism isillustrated in FIGS. 10-12. The design may include determining thereceive defect status, transporting the receive defect status tomultiple elements in the distributed system or, in some circumstances,to all elements of the distributed system, providing a connection matrixwithin each element to move the defect status to appropriate orapplicable corresponding transmit channels, and generating andtransmitting remote status indicators.

In operation, the receiving device detects the receive defect condition.The receiving device inserts the receive defect condition into anyunused data slots in the output data stream connected to each element ofthe distributed system. The transmitting device may extract thecondition or status, and the condition or status may be provided bycross connect to appropriate transmitting channels. The status may beemployed to generate remote status indicators for the far-end or remotesystem. Generation of the remote status indicator may be performed atthe receiving device, before transporting across devices, or at thetransmitting device after submission to the cross connect.

FIG. 10 illustrates the general traffic flow and forwarding mechanismconfiguration within a single device. As may be appreciated, multipledevices may be interconnected to provide extended capabilities, with theability to provide information between devices using a cross connect.The features of FIG. 10 are included within a single framer device. Thetop path represents the receive data stream or traffic flow, while thebottom path represents the transmit data stream or traffic flow. In aSONET/SDH configuration, the data stream may include all overhead andpointer processing data. Element 1001 is a G1 generator, where G1represents a byte within overhead of the transmitted data in a SONET/SDHconfiguration. G1 generator 1001 receives the status extracted from thereceive traffic flow, generates a G1 value, and inserts the G1information into the unused overhead of the data stream. The dataincluding the G1 information then passes to cross connect 1002, whichrepresents an interconnection of the data stream among all elements ofthe distributed system. In the transmit traffic flow path, G1information is extracted at the point shown, and the G1 informationprovided to the G1 cross connect 1003. Optional protection controller1004 may be included to monitor the availability of G1 information, andif no G1 information is present, the G1 cross connect 1003 may notoperate to insert G1 data into the transmit stream. Without optionalprotection controller 1004, the G1 cross connect 1003 will continuouslyextract and insert G1 data in all circumstances.

FIG. 11 illustrates G1 remote status forwarding in cascaded connectionmatrices. The present design uses separate high order (HO) cross connectmatrix 1101 and low order (LO) cross connect matrix 1102 to process andpass data. From FIG. 11, HO cross connect matrix 1101 is connected to LOcross connect matrix 1102 by a high order path termination andadaptation connections.

From FIG. 11, data may flow from LO cross connect matrix 1102 to HOcross connect matrix 1101 through adaptation element 1104 andtermination element 1103. Data may alternately flow from HO crossconnect matrix 1101 to LO cross connect matrix 1102 through terminationelement 1106 and adaptation element 1107. Both of these paths representthe high order path termination and adaptation functionality.

The LO cross connect matrix interfaces with adaptation element 1106using arrangement 1108, which includes path 1108a, path 1108b,termination element 1108c, and path 1108d. Path 1108b, terminationelement 1108c, and path 1108d provide for low order path non-intrusivemonitoring, enabling monitoring of the content of the low order path andthe data provided from HO cross connect matrix 1101 to LO cross connectmatrix 1102. Such monitoring enables evaluating the data flowing to theLO cross connect matrix 1102, and if acceptable, forwarding the data tothe LO cross connect matrix 1102. If the data is all LO and nomonitoring is needed, path 1108a passes the data to the LO cross connectmatrix 1102.

Termination elements 1104 and 1106 interface by termination element 1104picking out HP-RDI/HP-REI, the high order path remote dataindicator/remote error indicator, where the remote error indicatorprovides a count of bit errors. In SONET/SDH, G1 includes the high orderprotocol/layer remote defect indicator, where V5 includes the low orderprotocol/layer remote defect indicator.

Features 1105 and 1109 represent combination termination and adaptationelements that interface the Management System (MS) with the HO crossconnect matrix 1101, and terminate the packets and adapt the packetsreceived into HO components. The two paths represent two differentincoming streams from the MS. Element 1110 is a termination component ina high order path non-intrusive monitor, while element 1111 is analternate termination component for the high order path. Each of the twopaths thus contains a high order path non-intrusive monitor, and eachoperates to detect a defective or bad message received. If such adefective message is located, operation switches to the other data pathfrom the MS to the HO cross connect matrix 1101. Monitoring may bebypassed if undesired or unnecessary, or in the event pointers or thehigh order payload are unavailable, using paths 1112 or 1113. The linesnumbered 1150 and 1151 represent incoming data from outside or remotesources (lines 1151) and data outgoing to outside or remote sources(lines 1150).

The present design may include a unified HO/LO cross connect fabric 1201as shown in FIG. 12. Use of the design of FIG. 12 in a SONET/SDHenvironment can include broadcasting the G1 high order data to meet highorder UPSR (unidirectional path) requirements with low order grooming ina unified matrix. The unified HO/LO cross connect fabric may include aHP-RDI/HP-REI (G1) cross connect fabric 1250, referred to here as aremote data indicator cross connect fabric 1250. The G1 value receivedat this remote data indicator cross connect fabric 1250 may be extractedfrom the incoming data stream and interpreted.

The unified cross connect fabric 1201 connects all distributed elementsand specifically both the high order and low order aspects of each in asingle fabric rather than two separate fabrics. Such a design allows fora single matrix to perform the interconnect functions of the crossconnect fabric. Fabrication of a unified cross connect fabric comprisessimply combining all performance of the HO and LO cross connect fabrics1101 and 1102 from FIG. 11 into a single unified cross connect fabric,addressing both high order and low order functionality.

From FIG. 12, two paths are available to address unified HO/LO crossconnect fabric 1201, namely an upper path and a lower path. The upperpath includes combined element 1202, termination element 1203,adaptation element 1204, as well as adaptation element 1205, terminationelement 1206, and low order path non-intrusive monitor 1207. As with theprevious design of FIG. 11, the low order path non-intrusive monitormonitors the low order path for and may remove unacceptable data. Thislow order path non-intrusive monitor 1207 may be bypassed. The lowerpath offers similar components, namely combined element 412, terminationelement 1213, adaptation element 1214, as well as adaptation element1215, termination element 1216, and low order path non-intrusive monitor1217. As contrasted with the design of FIG. 11, a single interconnectionis provided with a single fabric to and from external distributedelements, and rather than processing a high order matrix and itsfunctionality in addition to a low order matrix and its associatedfunctionality, a single fabric is operated. The design of FIG. 12provides for a cascaded connection matrix using interconnected elementsand devices using a single point of connection. The single point ofconnection enables centralized control of all protection schemes at allprotection levels. Centralization can be employed using a singlecontroller, where the FIG. 11 design required a plurality ofcontrollers. All statuses from all layers may be available using thedesign of FIG. 12.

Additional incoming and outgoing data paths are presented as incomingpaths 1251a and 1251b and outgoing paths 1252a and 1252b. As shown,these paths interface directly with remote data indicator cross connectfabric 1250 and may pass through or employ unified HO/LO cross connectfabric 1201. These paths typically include the HP-RDI and/or HP-REIsignal values.

It will be appreciated to those of skill in the art that the presentdesign may be applied to other systems that perform data processing, andis not restricted to the communications structures and processesdescribed herein. Further, while specific hardware elements and relatedstructures have been discussed herein, it is to be understood that moreor less of each may be employed while still within the scope of thepresent invention. Accordingly, any and all modifications, variations,or equivalent arrangements, which may occur to those skilled in the art,should be considered to be within the scope of the present invention asdefined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A cross connect arrangement used to connect aplurality of components in a communication network, comprising: a highorder termination and adaptation path coupled to transmit and receivehigh order data and terminate and adapt components of said high orderdata; a low order termination and adaptation path coupled to transmitand receive low order data and terminate and adapt components of saidlow order data; a low order path monitor configured to monitor the loworder termination and adaptation path for any absence of appropriate loworder data; and an interconnection with the plurality of components,wherein said cross connect arrangement uniformly addresses high orderdata processing and low order data processing.
 2. The arrangement ofclaim 1, further comprising a high order combined termination-adaptationelement configured to transmit high order data to and receive high orderdata from the high order termination and adaptation path and interfacewith a data management system.
 3. The arrangement of claim 1, furthercomprising a low order combined termination-adaptation elementconfigured to transmit low order data to and receive low order data fromthe low order termination and adaptation path and interface with a datamanagement system.
 4. The arrangement of claim 2, further comprising ahigh order combined termination-adaptation element configured totransmit high order data to and receive low order data from the highorder termination and adaptation path and interface with the datamanagement system.
 5. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein saidarrangement is configured to operate on a cascaded arrangement ofconnection matrices.
 6. The arrangement of claim 5, wherein operation onthe cascaded arrangement of connection matrices comprises storingworking and protection channel connection maps.
 7. The arrangement ofclaim 5, wherein operation on the cascaded arrangement of connectionmatrices comprises a microengine enabled controller configured toreprogram a connection map, the microengine enabled controller driven bya cascaded connection map configuration.
 8. A component in acommunication network, comprising: a multiple order cross connectionfabric employed to interconnect multiple orders of data with at leastone distributed component in the communication network; at least oneorder of path termination and adaptation connection, said at least oneorder of path termination and adaptation connection providing aninterface between the multiple order cross connection fabric and a datamanagement system; and a low order combined termination-adaptationelement communicatively coupled to the multiple order cross connectionfabric and configured to transmit low order data to and receive loworder data from a low order termination and adaptation path andinterface with the data management system, wherein the multiple ordercross connection fabric uniformly addresses high order data processingand low order data processing.
 9. The component of claim 8, wherein saidat least one order of path termination and adaptation connectioncomprises a low order path termination and adaptation connection. 10.The component of claim 9, wherein said at least one order of pathtermination and adaptation connection further comprises a high orderpath termination and adaptation connection.
 11. The component of claim9, wherein the low order path termination and adaptation connectioncomprises a low order path monitor configured to monitor the low ordertermination and adaptation path for any absence of appropriate low orderdata.
 12. The component of claim 10, wherein the high order pathtermination and adaptation connection further comprises a high ordercombined termination-adaptation element configured to transmit highorder data to and receive high order data from a high order terminationand adaptation path and interface with a data management system.
 13. Thecomponent of claim 8, wherein said component is configured to operate ona cascaded arrangement of connection matrices.
 14. The component ofclaim 13, wherein operation on the cascaded arrangement of connectionmatrices comprises storing working and protection channel connectionmaps.
 15. The component of claim 13, wherein operation on the cascadedarrangement of connection matrices comprises a microengine enabledcontroller configured to reprogram a connection map, the microengineenabled controller driven by a cascaded connection map configuration.16. A system comprising: at least one component; at least one line cardcomprising: a low order path monitor configured to monitor a low ordertermination and adaptation path for any absence of appropriate low orderdata; a framer; and a controller; and a fabric configured to provideintercommunication between the line card and the at least one component;wherein the fabric comprises a multiple order cross connection fabricemployed to interconnect multiple orders of data with at least onecomponent and at least one order of path termination and adaptationconnection, said at least one order of path termination and adaptationconnection providing an interface between the multiple order crossconnection fabric and a data management system, wherein the multipleorder cross connection fabric uniformly addresses high order dataprocessing and low order data processing.
 17. The system of claim 16,wherein the fabric is compatible with TFI-5.
 18. The system of claim 16,wherein the fabric is compatible with CSIX.
 19. The system of claim 16,wherein the line card is coupled to provide an interface for a FibreChannel compatible network.
 20. The system of claim 16, wherein the linecard is coupled to provide an interface for an Ethernet compatiblenetwork.
 21. The system of claim 16, wherein the line card is coupled toperform add-drop multiplexing.
 22. A cross connect arrangement used toconnect a plurality of components in a communication network,comprising: a high order termination and adaptation path coupled totransmit and receive high order data and terminate and adapt componentsof said high order data; a high order combined termination-adaptationelement configured to transmit high order data to and receive high orderdata from the high order termination and adaptation path and interfacewith a data management system; a low order termination and adaptationpath coupled to transmit and receive low order data and terminate andadapt components of said low order data; and an interconnection with theplurality of components, wherein said cross connect arrangementuniformly addresses high order data processing and low order dataprocessing.
 23. A networking component, comprising: a repair element toreceive, from transport overhead bytes in a data flow in a transportsystem, health codes communicated in-band in the data flow, wherein: thehealth codes identifying health conditions of a plurality of transportchannels in the transport system; and the health conditions areidentified by priority codes ranging from defects, alarms to no defectsand alarms; channel health code storage unit to store the health codes;and a micro engine to analyze the health codes to measure and determinetransport channel health; determine a reprovisioning of connection mapswithin the repair element; and communicate the reprovisioned connectionmaps to the repair element.
 24. The networking component of claim 23,wherein the health codes include representations of status, alarm, anddefect.
 25. The networking component of claim 23, wherein the networkingcomponent is not part of the cross connect matrix.
 26. The networkingcomponent of claim 23, wherein the micro engine to apply a filter to thehealth codes to prevent erroneous health codes from causing undesiredprotection switches to occur.
 27. The networking component of claim 26,wherein the filter is a persistent filter.
 28. The networking componentof claim 27, wherein the micro engine is configured to accept a healthcode for processing after a count of consecutive frames having thehealth code is reached.
 29. The networking component of claim 23,wherein the repair element responsible for re-provisioning the failedconnection is distally located from the networking component.